1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to telecommunications services. More particularly, the present invention relates to capabilities that enhance substantially the value and usefulness of various communication paradigms including, inter alia, Short Message Service (SMS), Multimedia Message Service (MMS), Internet Protocol (IP) Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), Electronic Mail (E-Mail), Instant Messaging (IM), Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), etc.
2. Background of the Invention
As the ‘wireless revolution’ continues to march forward through various flavors of 2G, 3G, 4G, and beyond, the importance to a Mobile Subscriber (MS)—for example a user of a Wireless Device (WD) that is serviced by possibly inter alia a Wireless Carrier (WC)—of their WD grows substantially. Examples of WDs include, possibly inter alia, mobile telephones, smart phones, handheld computers, Internet-enabled phones, pagers, radios, TVs, audio devices, car audio (and other) systems, recorders, text-to-speech devices, bar-code scanners, net appliances, mini-browsers, personal data assistants (PDAs), etc.
One consequence of such a growing importance is the resulting ubiquitous nature of WDs—i.e., MSs carry them at almost all times and use them for an ever-increasing range of activities. For example, MSs employ their WDs to, possibly inter alia:
1) Exchange messages with other MSs (e.g., “Let's meet for dinner at 6”) through Peer-to-Peer, or P2P, messaging.
2) Secure information (such as, for example, weather updates, travel alerts, news updates, sports scores, etc.), participate in voting initiatives (such as, for example, with the television show American Idol®), interact with social networking sites, etc. through an Application-to-Peer, or A2P, campaign, initiative, etc. as offered by a Content Provider (CP).
3) Engage in for example Mobile Commerce (which, broadly speaking, encompasses the buying and selling of merchant-supplied products, goods, and services through a WD) and Mobile Banking (which, broadly speaking, encompasses performing various banking activities through a WD).
During participation in a CP A2P campaign, initiative, etc. a MS may need to complete one or more opt-in and/or opt-out activities. For example:
1) An opt-in process may among other things confirm, ensure, etc. that a MS does indeed wish to participate in a CP campaign, initiative, etc. and among other things receive, and possibly pay for, any (SMS, MMS, IMS, etc.) messages that may be sent to their WD in connection with the campaign, initiative, etc.
2) An opt-out process may among other things confirm, ensure, etc. that a MS does indeed wish to end their participation in a CP campaign, initiative, etc. to which the MS had previously opted-in.
Opt-in and opt-out processes can be complicated, involved, etc. and among other things may necessitate an understanding of, involvement by, etc. a CP in the technical aspects of the world of (SMS, MMS, IMS, etc.) messaging. This can represent a significant challenge for a CP since CPs frequently do not have such technical expertise.
What is needed is a flexible, extensible, dynamically configurable, etc. message service gateway that offers inter alia a façade through which a CP, among others, may simply and easily complete among other things opt-in and opt-out activities. Such a façade may inter alia hide various of the complexities, technical aspects, etc. of (SMS, MMS, IMS, etc.) messaging.
Aspects of the present invention fills the lacuna that was noted above by (1) providing aspects of a message service gateway while (2) addressing, in new and innovatory ways, various of the not insubstantial challenges that are associated with same.